1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a digital camera which can display a plurality of thumbnail images in a display area of the camera, and more particularly to a digital camera and method which displays page and/or segment information of a currently displayed page.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, a digital camera having a function to display thumbnail images in a display area of the camera has become popular and, for example, a digital camera having such a function is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 8-195927. The term xe2x80x9cthumbnail imagesxe2x80x9d refers to a reduced data image of a conventional image. More specifically, in a digital camera full image data of an image can be stored, and a thumbnail image which presents a fraction of the data of the full image data can also be stored. An operator can then quickly review the thumbnail image data prior to selecting a full image data.
In the digital camera described in JP No. 8-195927, an optical image of an object is formed on an imaging device by a lens to be photoelectrically converted to electrical signals. Various kinds of signal processings are then performed on the electrical signals such that image data, e.g. of each of YCrCb, is obtained from the electrical signals. The image data can then be compressed and written into a memory for storage. The stored image data can then be read out from the memory and reproduced on a display device such as a CRT or the like. The digital camera further has a function of displaying a plurality of thumbnail images arranged in a matrix form on the display screen of the display device. The thumbnail images are displayed using a frame memory for temporarily storing therein image data read out from the memory, and a memory controller for managing a corresponding relation between a coordinate position on the display screen and an address of the frame memory.
In the above-described background digital camera, when thumbnail images stored in the image memory are sequentially split into a plurality of groups of thumbnail images such that each of the plurality of groups of thumbnail images can be sequentially displayed on the display screen (an image of a group of thumbnail images to be displayed on the display screen is hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9cpagexe2x80x9d), an operator can not determine the page number of a currently displayed page. Further, the number of thumbnail images in one page can be varied, to thereby change the number of pages. However, when the number of thumbnail images to be included in a page is changed while one of the thumbnail images in a page currently being displayed on the display screen is designated with a cursor, the thumbnail image designated with the cursor may not be in a next page displayed on the display screen. An operator may then have difficulty in finding the new page in which the thumbnail image designated with the cursor is located.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a novel digital camera and method by which an operator can easily determine a page number of a currently displayed page, when thumbnail images stored in an image memory are sequentially split into a plurality of pages.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel digital camera and method by which a thumbnail image designated with a cursor is in a page displayed in a display screen, even when a number of thumbnail images to be included in a page is reset.
The novel digital camera of the present invention can achieve the above and other objects by including a memory configured to store image data including thumbnail image data and a display configured to display the thumbnail image data. Further, in the novel digital camera of the present invention a controller is configured to control the display of the thumbnail image data and to display page data with the thumbnail image data. As a further feature in the present invention, the page data can include data of a currently displayed page and data of a total number of pages, and further an operator can set and reset the number of thumbnail images which form one page. Further, the operator can change this setting of the number of thumbnail images in one page while selecting a specific thumbnail image of a currently displayed page of thumbnail image data.
As further features in the novel digital camera of the present invention, the controller can calculate the total number of pages in a currently displayed page, and can recalculate this data if the number of thumbnail images in a page is reset by an operator. Further, each of the pages can be accessed sequentially and the first and last pages can be viewed as sequential pages. Segment data can also be displayed and can be recalculated if a number of thumbnail images which form one page is reset by an operator.